HDN: Hatsuyume
by Symantra
Summary: On the night of the first day of the new year, tradition says to keep an eye out—in the dream world, that is—for auspicious symbols that can give one prescience as to what kind of luck they can expect in the next year. These symbols are said to have been favored by a leader long past. But the current leader of Planeptune really doesn't feel the same way.


Neptune was standing on a mountaintop, a sea of fog far beneath her feet. Her hair whipped around her head in the zephyr. All around her in a 360-degree radius, the sky glowed with the orange of daybreak. This high above the clouds, the sun was a huge ball of orange and red, bright but not burning.

A black dot crossed the sky. Squinting, she followed it as it circled the mountain and stopped in front of the sun. Slowly, it grew larger. The dark speck came closer and closer. Straining her senses, she could hear flapping; the dot turned brown, purple, as it approached. Her eyes widened.

Neptune shut her eyes, knowing nothing could halt the projectile hurtling toward her. In a few moments it would—

"No no noooo! Get it away from me, help! Nepgear, Iffy, Compa!"

She bolted upright, her whole body rigid as her arms flew up to protect her face. But nothing hit her. The wind had died, and the sound of beating wings was no more.

After a few seconds, she opened an eye to peek through the gap in her arms. Gone was the relentless, glaring sun that she had faced moments ago; it had been replaced by a familiar backdrop. She was in her room, filled with cool furniture and calming shades of purple. The beanbag she made sure to claim for herself whenever visitors visited was slumped on the carpet.

Just when she thought she was safe, there came a sound from over her head. Her breath caught in the back of her throat. Before she could yell fiercely at her assailer, something dropped from the ceiling only centimeters away from her face. Purple, the color of death she had seen in her dream, filled her vision.

"Neptune! Are you okay?!"

Neptune screamed and threw herself backward, slamming into the wall with a loud thump. She collapsed, and her hand flew to the spot on the back of her head that had banged against the wall.

"Argh! No, I'm not okay!" she shouted. "Nepgear, why'd you do that? You scared the living Dogoos out of me!"

"Oh goodness, I'm so sorry!" Hanging upside-down from the top bunk, Nepgear frowned as her sister picked herself up. "Um, Sis... Are you okay now?"

The goddess grimaced and said, "No, I'm not okay. I just had the most traumatizing dream!"

"Do you want to talk to me about it?"

Neptune groaned and swung her legs out of bed. "Y-yeah, I need to get it off my chest."

* * *

"So let me get this straight." Nepgear took a breath, and her eyebrows came together. "You were standing on a mountain, and there was a bird flying around you. Then, it came closer until you could see that it was a hawk... carrying a giant eggplant?"

Neptune nodded humorlessly.

"Precisely, my Gear Nep-san! It's like someone customized that nightmare specifically for me! This has to be some sort of bad omen, huh?"

Nepgear inclined her head thoughtfully. "Well, no. How do I put this... You're, uh, a very auspicious person?"

"You don't sound so sure of that." Neptune narrowed her eyes. "What are you saying? That eggplants are good? Have you turned on me, ex-sister? I don't think I know you anymore."

"Definitely not! It's just..." Nepgear faltered, at a loss for how to explain the annual, controversial tradition to her stubborn sibling. "When you go to bed on New Year's Day, there are certain things that people want to see in their dreams. It's like a fortunetelling for the luck you'll have in the next year."

"And those things are?"

"Um... There's three. The first is Mount Fuji, which you were standing on. The second is a hawk, and you saw that too. And the third is..."

"And the third is what?"

"... an eggplant."

The CPU was quiet for a long time. Nepgear gulped and looked away, fearing that she had somehow disappointed her older sister.

 _Bzzt! Bzzzt!_

"Someone's calling me," Neptune deadpanned and took out her mobile from the pouch of her hoodie. She flipped it open and set it on speakerphone. "Goddess speakin'. State thy business."

 _"Nep! Can I come over?"_ said a familiar voice fraught with urgency.

The goddess' tone changed. "Iffy? But you never call me, so why..."

 _"I just had the most traumatizing dream!_ _I need to talk to someone who understands me. I know it's early, but can I—"_

"Oh my glob, you too? Hurry over, I'll get the pudding!"

Nepgear sighed and shook her head as her sister ran to the fridge. "You two... For some reason, I'm envious that I didn't see any eggplants..."

* * *

 **Happy New Year!**


End file.
